Color Blind

I led a white privileged life! You know the one where I was raised in a white family who had the privilege of playing with kids of all races and colors and meeting people of all nationalities. Okay, maybe that’s not your typical white privileged life but it was an honor and privilege for me to be raised in this way.

I grew up in a unique environment through a ministry called Teen Challenge. Teen Challenge is a program that ministers to those who struggle with addictions like drug and alcohol abuse. Through this ministry, I was introduced to many wonderful people of all nationalities and colors. I grew up color blind not realizing that most people don’t have this kind of privileged life to be surrounded by diversity.

I didn’t really understand what racism was until I was taught about it at school. I heard stories from people of all nationalities in how negatively they were treated but never really experienced racism for myself. Sometimes I wonder, if I had never been taught what racism was, would it really matter? Let me explain.

I see racism in two forms. First there are Americans who are not part of the struggle and have never been part of the problem and are constantly trying to prove they are not racist. The second are those that have been hurt or mistreated because of their race and they are desperately fighting to justify their pain by bringing race to every issue. Is there a point when we need to just let it go and make color go blind?

Growing up in a diverse environment didn’t teach me anything about racism. Race was never an issue. My parents never made my color or the color of my friends an issue. It was later on in life that others made me aware of the color of my skin. It was my society that constantly tried to point out that I was ignorant of the struggle of racism because my skin had no dark pigment. How could I possibly understand?

Now, I see racism through the eyes of my children. We never make our race or the race of others an issue. We don’t bring the discussion to the table because it shouldn’t be an issue to begin with. In the 2008 election my daughter had to do a mock vote as a class. She didn’t vote for Barack Obama and when asked by her friend who she voted for, she innocently named McCain. Her friend accused her of voting that way because Obama was black. My daughter was hurt over this accusation and was inadvertently introduced to racism. How is it possible to raise my children color blind when others make race an issue at any chance?

I am not diminishing the pain that has come from those who have made race an issue. I am not dismissing racism or making any kind of excuse for the hatred that still exists in this country. I am simply trying to share my heart over this issue. If only, as an adult, I could have kept that innocent child-like mentality that the color of skin is just a pigment. If only, as a society, we could truly be like the visual impairment of colorblindness. This doesn’t mean that we are not supposed to see any color but simply have trouble seeing the difference between the colors. Then maybe, we could see the headlines of news stories like Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown and feel the anguish over their untimely deaths not because they were black teenagers but because each one of them could have been my son, too. Could the society we live in ever be that color blind?

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8 responses to Color Blind

My parents instilled similar values in me as a child. I still have to remind myself that where I see beauty in the variety of color and culture, a lot of other people, no matter what concentration of melanin is in their skin, see a world of discrimination based on those factors. I have to respect that this has been their experience and either out of ignorance our self-protection, they make broad sweeping judgments about others, whether positive or negative. It is easy for me to see where they do it. It’s harder for me to see where my prejudice lies. I may not be a racist, but where have I made snap judgments about someone because of their religion, ssxual orientation .

Sexual orientation or political persuasion? These are the areas that challenge me most. How do I gain God’s perspective and walk it out in these places? I don’t want to just rest on my moral superiority in the race realm because I have a bi-racial marriage or a Hispanic-Asian stepdaughter. I want to challenge my own stereotypes in the places it is harder for me to see them.

“How do I gain God’s perspective and walk it out in these places?”
I think he is reminding me to lay it at HIS feet (at the cross) and to try and help others to do the same. Discrimination in all areas runs a deep pain in so many people. God is the moral judge and healer!

When I am with a group of people (diverse and wonderful); my first response is to gain information about their food, culture and yes their faith. I am a christian education major and I care about getting the good news out to others. However, in my excitement of meeting new people, I try to discern an open heart and a thirst for truth in side the other person. If I am long term in some relationships with friends and neighbors, they may reject me at first, but loving them and meeting their ‘felt need’ when it arises and I can be involved is always the way GOD wants us to go !!!

A year and 4 months we learned of the headlines of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. I wrote this after feeling the pain of the racial divide in this country and now my heart still feels sad. Will we ever heal wounds of racial injustice?

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[…] not diverse in color, I was quick to judge them based on their lack of diversity. In a previous post, I shared how I had the unique upbringing of growing up among multi-cultural people. My world was […]